DEAR MISS MANNERS: When a man and woman eat at a restaurant, who should enter a booth first and slide over? The man would enter a car or boat first, if it were to be entered only from one side, and thus experience the inconvenience of sliding over. However, a man walks on the street side to protect the lady from unpleasantness from the street. That logic would put the lady in the booth first, with the man on the outside.

GENTLE READER: Assuming that the restaurant is not unpleasant, the car-boat rule applies -- although, as with transportation, professional manners substitute rank for gender.

That can be tricky, as a subordinate might not want to slide in first if there were a danger of leaving the boss feeling snubbed. If you believe that your companion -- be it your boss or your date -- will not understand your intentions, Miss Manners suggests being explicit: “Let me just slide over so you don’t have to.”

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My social circle and I have reached the age where our parents are starting to pass away. When a friend loses a parent, but there is no significant other or child involved, I know exactly how to address the sympathy card and envelope. But if someone is married and has a family, what then?

For instance, if someone’s mother dies, and she was also a mother-in-law and grandmother, does that need to be noted? Or is the card just for the immediate family member?

I have wound up sending cards addressed to the family as a whole, and writing things inside like, “Dear Bob, Carol, Ted, Alice, Jimmy and Sally: So sorry about the passing of your mother/mother-in-law/grandma,” but that seems far too unwieldy. Should I send separate cards? Limit it to the offspring only?

GENTLE READER: The principal mourner -- a spouse or partner, then an oldest child, then a parent, then a sibling -- is important for many reasons. One of these is being the recipient of the condolence letter, who can be asked to convey the writer’s condolences to the rest of the family. In addition, there is often a family member designated to handle funeral arrangements -- and adjudicate disagreements -- in the name of the principal mourner.

Miss Manners would think you would also want to write a condolence letter to the relative with whom you have the closest connection, although you can ask that it be conveyed to the others. In any case, your sympathy should be expressed to other relatives at the funeral.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: When a woman needs to wear both a nametag and a piece of jewelry, such as a brooch, what is the correct placement for each?

GENTLE READER: The French word for looking as if you do not own a mirror -- deshabille -- does not carry the same unpleasant connotations as the English word “unkempt.”

But the latter is, in Miss Manners’ experience, more likely to capture correctly the impression you are likely to leave, should you attempt to wear both items closely together. When donning a nametag, the sensible woman adjusts her jewelry, moving brooches to a symmetrical position, or pocketing items that cannot be reconciled.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR MISS MANNERS: The train I take to commute to work is composed of rows of two seats: one window seat and one aisle seat. Inevitably when I board, the only seats left are the aisle seats.

Because I ride the train for five stops, it is often the case that my seat companion wants to get off before my stop. Almost always, I am either kindly asked to get up while the train is still moving, or my companion wordlessly stands up, also while the train is still moving, to prompt me to get up.

I would hate to make the person late for something; however, I do not like getting up while the train is moving. This is because it often lurches in one direction or another, especially as it is braking for its stop, and I am thrown around, trying to balance my belongings.

Sometimes I ask if we could please wait for the train to fully stop. A few people say “no problem,” but more often, they are bothered -- understandably, because I am essentially holding them hostage in their seat until the train fully stops. What is the proper train etiquette in this scenario?

GENTLE READER: Most transportation systems subject their customers to some level of discomfort and inconvenience. (This is, Miss Manners believes, why one hears so many announcements in transit on how much the company cares about its passengers.) Trains make noise, they lurch, and space is at a premium.

Polite passengers (presuming that they are not in need of special accommodation) give more weight to the comfort of fellow passengers than to their own. This means offering seats, making room in the aisle -- and getting up when the inside passenger requests. Remember that another inconvenience of commuter trains is that they hurry people on and off: An inside passenger may have good reason to worry about the time allowed for disembarking.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: One of my favorite dishes at a local restaurant includes strips of chicken, marinated and grilled on small skewers. What is the proper way to eat this?

Does one pick up each end of the skewer and daintily nibble away? Or does the diner use cutlery to slide the chicken off the skewer and proceed with a knife and fork?

I have tried both methods. Other diners appear to take no notice of either, but I want to do this properly. The eating establishment is very casual -- a ribs and wings place, not a linen tablecloth in sight. Does that matter?

GENTLE READER: Grasp one end of the skewer and use your fork to push everything onto the plate, where it may then be eaten in the normal way.

In addition to this method being formal enough for any occasion, so you don’t need to check for tablecloths, Miss Manners prefers this method because even she is not dainty enough to remove the last piece of meat from the bottom of the skewer without the danger of sending pieces flying -- or, more to the point, skewering herself.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)

DEAR MISS MANNERS: When I was engaging in an amiable conversation with a neighbor, I brought out my phone, as I had gotten a text message from a colleague. Seeing the phone, the neighbor said, “Give me your digits” -- i.e., they wanted my phone number in order to contact me.

Is there a polite way to decline this request? I know in the past, phone numbers were listed in physical phone directories where anyone could look a neighbor up. But no more.

I want to be a good neighbor, but I also suspect this neighbor’s motives in asking for my “digits” is a bit dodgy, and unrelated to pure neighborliness. I do not want them to have my phone number.

In contemporary culture, the tactic is often to lie and give out fake “digits,” but I find that to be rude. What do you suggest I do?

GENTLE READER: The short answer is to give your neighbor an email address you don’t often check. You might even establish one for this purpose. The request was for “digits,” but if someone asks specifically for your telephone number, you should do the same, after saying, “That’s no longer a good way to reach me.”

If you have patience for the long answer, you will understand that you do not have to choose between politeness and privacy.

The disappearance of the telephone book is not the only relevant change. Telephoning itself is slowly disappearing, although you may not have noticed this, with all the public yapping wherever you go.

Yes, everyone is hunched over what is ostensibly a phone. But they are not all talking, especially not the young. They are using it to text, post, play games, take photographs, take videos and keep up with celebrities and other braggarts -- anything but engage in direct vocal contact. For every parent annoyed at a child for never picking up, there is a child annoyed at a parent for not texting instead.

In addition, the constant bombardment of robocalls has made many people stop answering their telephones at all.

Miss Manners is not sorry to see this happen. She has always maintained that the telephone is an inherently rude instrument. It shrilly demands attention, with no consideration of the circumstances of the person being called. As valuable as it is for emergencies, and for people who really want to talk to each other in real time, it is generally a disruptive nuisance.

So there is no reason for you to be embarrassed at not giving out your telephone number. You will seem to be showing consideration for the person who asked, saving frustration at not being able to reach you.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My daughter is correcting me in front of anyone, anytime and anywhere. And not in a nice way, but rather snarky. I am self-conscious now that it is getting worse. It happened this weekend when out to dinner with family. What to do?

GENTLE READER: Tell her to stop. Unless, of course, you modeled this behavior by correcting her in public as she was growing up.

(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)